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<ul id="index">
  <li><a href="#NAME">NAME</a></li>
  <li><a href="#SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></li>
  <li><a href="#DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
  <li><a href="#OPTIONS">OPTIONS</a>
    <ul>
      <li><a href="#General-options">General options</a></li>
      <li><a href="#Input-options">Input options</a></li>
      <li><a href="#Output-options">Output options</a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><a href="#EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></li>
  <li><a href="#SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></li>
  <li><a href="#HISTORY">HISTORY</a></li>
  <li><a href="#COPYRIGHT">COPYRIGHT</a></li>
</ul>

<h1 id="NAME">NAME</h1>

<p>openssl-pkey - public or private key processing command</p>

<h1 id="SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</h1>

<p><b>openssl</b> <b>pkey</b> [<b>-help</b>] [<b>-engine</b> <i>id</i>] [<b>-provider</b> <i>name</i>] [<b>-provider-path</b> <i>path</i>] [<b>-propquery</b> <i>propq</i>] [<b>-check</b>] [<b>-pubcheck</b>] [<b>-in</b> <i>filename</i>|<i>uri</i>] [<b>-inform</b> <b>DER</b>|<b>PEM</b>|<b>P12</b>|<b>ENGINE</b>] [<b>-passin</b> <i>arg</i>] [<b>-pubin</b>] [<b>-out</b> <i>filename</i>] [<b>-outform</b> <b>DER</b>|<b>PEM</b>] [<b>-<i>cipher</i></b>] [<b>-passout</b> <i>arg</i>] [<b>-traditional</b>] [<b>-pubout</b>] [<b>-noout</b>] [<b>-text</b>] [<b>-text_pub</b>] [<b>-ec_conv_form</b> <i>arg</i>] [<b>-ec_param_enc</b> <i>arg</i>]</p>

<h1 id="DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</h1>

<p>This command processes public or private keys. They can be converted between various forms and their components printed.</p>

<h1 id="OPTIONS">OPTIONS</h1>

<h2 id="General-options">General options</h2>

<dl>

<dt id="help"><b>-help</b></dt>
<dd>

<p>Print out a usage message.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="engine-id"><b>-engine</b> <i>id</i></dt>
<dd>

<p>See <a href="../man1/openssl.html">&quot;Engine Options&quot; in openssl(1)</a>. This option is deprecated.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="provider-name"><b>-provider</b> <i>name</i></dt>
<dd>

</dd>
<dt id="provider-path-path"><b>-provider-path</b> <i>path</i></dt>
<dd>

</dd>
<dt id="propquery-propq"><b>-propquery</b> <i>propq</i></dt>
<dd>

<p>See <a href="../man1/openssl.html">&quot;Provider Options&quot; in openssl(1)</a>, <a href="../man7/provider.html">provider(7)</a>, and <a href="../man7/property.html">property(7)</a>.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="check"><b>-check</b></dt>
<dd>

<p>This option checks the consistency of a key pair for both public and private components.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="pubcheck"><b>-pubcheck</b></dt>
<dd>

<p>This option checks the correctness of either a public key or the public component of a key pair.</p>

</dd>
</dl>

<h2 id="Input-options">Input options</h2>

<dl>

<dt id="in-filename-uri"><b>-in</b> <i>filename</i>|<i>uri</i></dt>
<dd>

<p>This specifies the input to read a key from or standard input if this option is not specified. If the key input is encrypted and <b>-passin</b> is not given a pass phrase will be prompted for.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="inform-DER-PEM-P12-ENGINE"><b>-inform</b> <b>DER</b>|<b>PEM</b>|<b>P12</b>|<b>ENGINE</b></dt>
<dd>

<p>The key input format; unspecified by default. See <a href="../man1/openssl-format-options.html">openssl-format-options(1)</a> for details.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="passin-arg"><b>-passin</b> <i>arg</i></dt>
<dd>

<p>The password source for the key input.</p>

<p>For more information about the format of <b>arg</b> see <a href="../man1/openssl-passphrase-options.html">openssl-passphrase-options(1)</a>.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="pubin"><b>-pubin</b></dt>
<dd>

<p>By default a private key is read from the input. With this option a public key is read instead. If the input contains no public key but a private key, its public part is used.</p>

</dd>
</dl>

<h2 id="Output-options">Output options</h2>

<dl>

<dt id="out-filename"><b>-out</b> <i>filename</i></dt>
<dd>

<p>This specifies the output filename to save the encoded and/or text output of key or standard output if this option is not specified. If any cipher option is set but no <b>-passout</b> is given then a pass phrase will be prompted for. The output filename should <b>not</b> be the same as the input filename.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="outform-DER-PEM"><b>-outform</b> <b>DER</b>|<b>PEM</b></dt>
<dd>

<p>The key output format; the default is <b>PEM</b>. See <a href="../man1/openssl-format-options.html">openssl-format-options(1)</a> for details.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="cipher"><b>-<i>cipher</i></b></dt>
<dd>

<p>Encrypt the PEM encoded private key with the supplied cipher. Any algorithm name accepted by EVP_get_cipherbyname() is acceptable such as <b>aes128</b>. Encryption is not supported for DER output.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="passout-arg"><b>-passout</b> <i>arg</i></dt>
<dd>

<p>The password source for the output file.</p>

<p>For more information about the format of <b>arg</b> see <a href="../man1/openssl-passphrase-options.html">openssl-passphrase-options(1)</a>.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="traditional"><b>-traditional</b></dt>
<dd>

<p>Normally a private key is written using standard format: this is PKCS#8 form with the appropriate encryption algorithm (if any). If the <b>-traditional</b> option is specified then the older &quot;traditional&quot; format is used instead.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="pubout"><b>-pubout</b></dt>
<dd>

<p>By default the private and public key is output; this option restricts the output to the public components. This option is automatically set if the input is a public key.</p>

<p>When combined with <b>-text</b>, this is equivalent to <b>-text_pub</b>.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="noout"><b>-noout</b></dt>
<dd>

<p>Do not output the key in encoded form.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="text"><b>-text</b></dt>
<dd>

<p>Output the various key components in plain text (possibly in addition to the PEM encoded form). This cannot be combined with encoded output in DER format.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="text_pub"><b>-text_pub</b></dt>
<dd>

<p>Output in text form only the public key components (also for private keys). This cannot be combined with encoded output in DER format.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="ec_conv_form-arg"><b>-ec_conv_form</b> <i>arg</i></dt>
<dd>

<p>This option only applies to elliptic-curve based keys.</p>

<p>This specifies how the points on the elliptic curve are converted into octet strings. Possible values are: <b>compressed</b> (the default value), <b>uncompressed</b> and <b>hybrid</b>. For more information regarding the point conversion forms please read the X9.62 standard. <b>Note</b> Due to patent issues the <b>compressed</b> option is disabled by default for binary curves and can be enabled by defining the preprocessor macro <b>OPENSSL_EC_BIN_PT_COMP</b> at compile time.</p>

</dd>
<dt id="ec_param_enc-arg"><b>-ec_param_enc</b> <i>arg</i></dt>
<dd>

<p>This option only applies to elliptic curve based public and private keys.</p>

<p>This specifies how the elliptic curve parameters are encoded. Possible value are: <b>named_curve</b>, i.e. the ec parameters are specified by an OID, or <b>explicit</b> where the ec parameters are explicitly given (see RFC 3279 for the definition of the EC parameters structures). The default value is <b>named_curve</b>. <b>Note</b> the <b>implicitlyCA</b> alternative, as specified in RFC 3279, is currently not implemented in OpenSSL.</p>

</dd>
</dl>

<h1 id="EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</h1>

<p>To remove the pass phrase on a private key:</p>

<pre><code> openssl pkey -in key.pem -out keyout.pem</code></pre>

<p>To encrypt a private key using triple DES:</p>

<pre><code> openssl pkey -in key.pem -des3 -out keyout.pem</code></pre>

<p>To convert a private key from PEM to DER format:</p>

<pre><code> openssl pkey -in key.pem -outform DER -out keyout.der</code></pre>

<p>To print out the components of a private key to standard output:</p>

<pre><code> openssl pkey -in key.pem -text -noout</code></pre>

<p>To print out the public components of a private key to standard output:</p>

<pre><code> openssl pkey -in key.pem -text_pub -noout</code></pre>

<p>To just output the public part of a private key:</p>

<pre><code> openssl pkey -in key.pem -pubout -out pubkey.pem</code></pre>

<p>To change the EC parameters encoding to <b>explicit</b>:</p>

<pre><code> openssl pkey -in key.pem -ec_param_enc explicit -out keyout.pem</code></pre>

<p>To change the EC point conversion form to <b>compressed</b>:</p>

<pre><code> openssl pkey -in key.pem -ec_conv_form compressed -out keyout.pem</code></pre>

<h1 id="SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</h1>

<p><a href="../man1/openssl.html">openssl(1)</a>, <a href="../man1/openssl-genpkey.html">openssl-genpkey(1)</a>, <a href="../man1/openssl-rsa.html">openssl-rsa(1)</a>, <a href="../man1/openssl-pkcs8.html">openssl-pkcs8(1)</a>, <a href="../man1/openssl-dsa.html">openssl-dsa(1)</a>, <a href="../man1/openssl-genrsa.html">openssl-genrsa(1)</a>, <a href="../man1/openssl-gendsa.html">openssl-gendsa(1)</a></p>

<h1 id="HISTORY">HISTORY</h1>

<p>The <b>-engine</b> option was deprecated in OpenSSL 3.0.</p>

<h1 id="COPYRIGHT">COPYRIGHT</h1>

<p>Copyright 2006-2023 The OpenSSL Project Authors. All Rights Reserved.</p>

<p>Licensed under the Apache License 2.0 (the &quot;License&quot;). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You can obtain a copy in the file LICENSE in the source distribution or at <a href="https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html">https://www.openssl.org/source/license.html</a>.</p>


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